Harvest Moon Wii details spilled

Marvelous, the maker of the farming-life strategy franchise Harvest Moon, isn't taking time off to celebrate the series' 10th anniversary this year. Harvest Moon: Innocent Life for the PlayStation Portable has already been released in Japan--where the series is known as Bokujo Monogatari--while a Nintendo DS title, Rune Factory, is slated for release there on August 24.

But the company has recently revealed information on perhaps the most anticipated game in the series: Harvest Moon for the Nintendo Wii. It appears that the game--tentatively titled Bokujo Monogatari Wii--will make ample use of Nintendo's next-gen controller to simulate farm chores, according to the latest Weekly Famitsu.

A handful of screenshots in the magazine demonstrated the Wii-mote's capabilities, including swinging the controller like a hoe to till soil, tilting it like a watering can to water crops, and swinging it like a scythe to mow down weeds. In game, icons appear on the screen's right side to cue players when to move the controller, but otherwise the series' mechanics seem unchanged: Players must still tend to their fields and animals if they want their farms to flourish. Bokujo Monogatari Wii's release date and price have not been announced.

The Wii wasn't the only Nintendo system to get a new Harvest Moon game. Marvelous also announced a new Nintendo DS title, called Bokujo Monogatari: Kimi to Sodatsu Shima. The game's main characters--an old man, a mother, and her three children--are shipwrecked on a deserted island, but by cultivating the land, they can eventually encourage people to begin immigrating to it.

According to Famitsu, every operation on the game can be performed with the DS stylus. As in the GameCube's Harvest Moon: Magical Melody, players can choose between a male and female character--whom players can marry off if they find suitable matches.